Digital tools such as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) have expanded the nature of craft practice, offering new means of design and making. However, in weaving, handmaking continues to be privileged, despite the acceptance of digital design and computer-controlled lifting mechanisms. Through experimental design research methods, self-forming three-dimensional textiles were designed in CAD software and woven on a computer-controlled jacquard power loom (a CAM tool). The textiles' three dimensionality arises from the combination of materials (contrasting shrinking and stiff yarns), structure and finishing. They are contextualized as craft objects through Pye's concept of 'the workmanship of risk'. As outcomes of a craft process, they illustrate the potential of industrial looms as tools for producing complex textile systems and expressions. The results include a method for crafting at the intersection of the workmanship of risk and CAD/CAM, providing a framework for this hybrid practice. The concept of emergent behaviour is discussed as a craft strategy when the workmanship of risk is focused on material forming rather than the tool or technique. This concept is contextualized beyond weaving, suggesting its applicability to other craft fields and practices, whether produced by hand or with the use of digital tools. 

Textiles, and textile objects, no matter their scale, retain traces within their expression of the fine scale fibre or yarn from which they are formed. Woven textile forms are typically constructed using hierarchical cut-and-assemble techniques, where the expression at the fibre-scale may be subsumed by that of the dominant form expression. Through experimental design research, a framework for designing non-hierarchical woven textiles has been developed, which navigates between 2D and 3D thinking and micro- and macro-scale design elements. This framework is contextualised through three methods for embedding three-dimensional form in a textile as itis woven: Catenary Structure, Tension Folds, and Expanding Layers. An example is presented foreach method, and the design of these multimorphic textile-forms is discussed, alongside the variable nature of scale in the digital textile design process. The framework exposes the multimorphic nature of woven textile-forms, and provides a lens for understanding their design process. 

This paper discusses the collaborative project the authors undertook for the speculativefilm Planet City in the context of a research program titled Critical Textile Topologies. Itoutlines the experimental design research methodology undertaken in the project, andreflects on the tension between design practice and design research that occurred in thedevelopment of multimorphic textile-based forms using whole garment weaving. Afteroutlining the project as a whole, two key areas are discussed: The negotiation betweenexpectations relating to design practice and the requirements of experimental designresearch; and the emergence of multimorphic understanding of this kind ofinterdisciplinary design practice. Planet City provided the researchers with a clear‘laboratory’ context to experiment within, rapidly driving the research forward in order topresent a speculative vision for the future. The paper presents this research as an exampleof interdisciplinarity situated at the borderline between practice and research,demonstrating that when balance is maintained between various practical and researchdrivers new knowledge and an enticing vision for the future can be developed.

The form of the Penguin textile artifact arises from an experiment exploring a three-layer weave-and-cut pleat structure (developed by Holly McQuillan: McQuillan, 2020), but transposing it to a closed volume incorporating stiff and shrinking yarns. The woven geometry is a simple one, and it is the interaction of the material and structure that gives rise to complex three-dimensional form. Penguin arises from a 'form-finding' design process (Baerlecken & Wright, 2014): one that allows space for the natural tendencies of the materials within a structure to produce three-dimensional form.

Exhibited in Drafts:3. Curators Jane Tepe, Faseeh Saleem, Vidmina Stasiulyte, Berit Greinke.

HCI research has demonstrated that textiles have interactive potential, with the ability to transform or self-shape, whether through material, structure, or the addition of non textile elements. Many materials for developing interactive or animated textiles – textiles which change during use – are fossil fuel-based, require electricity for activation, or are only available in small quantities. In this pictorial we present our exploration of high-twist linen yarn as an actuator material in woven textiles. Through experimental design research, we have defined key parameters affecting use of the material, and identified combinations of material and structure producing contrasting textile movement. The resulting woven textiles may be activated by spraying with water, or in high humidity, and the actuation is repeatable after drying, offering multiple modes of interaction. We offer proposals for HCI applications for the animated linen yarn, alongside a guide to facilitate producing and designing animated woven linen textiles.

Shaping the water-line(n) is a presentation of a hygromorphic textile sculpture woven with high-twist linen yarn, and the research process that it embodies. In contrast to the textiles we are surrounded by – mass produced, disposable – Shaping the water-line(n) invites its audience to interact in its forming. The textile has its own behaviour, responding to moisture – environmental humidity, or sprayed water. Every interaction leaves traces in its form, as it tenses and relaxes with increasing and decreasing moisture levels. Its ongoing forming is a collaboration between the textile and its audience. For designers, it proposes the concept of ‘textile behaviour as co-worker’: an alternative perspective for textile design in contrast to dominant determinative, computational models of design. The designer is no longer the sole arbiter, releasing agency over the outcome of their design, partnering with the material and structure of the textile as it forms itself.